No...no..not another...aaaagh....M42.

[TheDecepticon]

Sorry to post another M42!

I have promised my self I wont do another for at least 5 years!!

Any way, Ha,HaR,G,B, about 9 hrs, Megrez 110, QHY9, 15, 10, 5 and 3 min exposures.

I don't like what Skydrive does to images when you upload them, I need to get decent hosting.

http://tinyurl.com/7ap3xat

Cheers and clears!!

[h0ughy (David)]

well with my photon starved life i think its terrific

[Ross G]

Hi,

Great looking photo.

Sharp, detailed and I love the smooth, natural colours.

Ross.

[Craig_L]

Very nice indeed. Lovely rendition with the focus more on the surrounding dust.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Great details Gray.

[Paul Haese]

Certainly loads of detail in there Gray. Those lovely tendrills of gas that hang between M42 and the running man are sharp and well shown.

I do think the image looks a bit flat though. Something is not quite right with your colour balance too. There does not seem to be any orange stars in the field.

Some tweeking of curves will see you right though.

[Meru (Michael)]

First of all - Nice title

Secondly, I've seen a fair few M42 images (as most of us here can also tell you) but I dont think I've quite seen so much detail immediately outside both Nebulas... it's almost like there's a river of gas surrounding these which I've never seen.

Great work!

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

That's a very nice M42, it looks natural and the core looks significantly brighter than the rest without being blown out, well done. I agree with Paul that the colours are perhaps too red when considering the star colours. The nebula itself looks great though.

[TheDecepticon]

Hi everyone, thank you very much for your comments.

I always struggle with star colour, however, I see others with the same chip who can get good star colour. Sometimes I wonder if my scope has anything to do with it, or if I just screw it up.

Anyway, I have tried a repro, which didn't go all to plan, but it does look in many ways a lot better than the original.

http://tinyurl.com/7cy379d

Thanks for looking, hope you all have a great day!!

[wysiwyg (Mark)]

Great job!

I love that Jelly Fish look of it, great stuff!

[gregbradley]

You got a lot of detail there Gray and overall a nice image. I think though Ha Ha RGB is not the best choice for this object as it looks dull and the colours are too biased to the red. Some luminance would lift it and show off the fabulous details you got there. Ha as luminance is a hard beast to tame and I have concluded its not usually a good move. Ha + O111 is nice, Ha LRGB is good but Ha as luminance seems to wash out the RGB too hard or create salmon colours too easily. Ha and O111 with RGB stars is a really nice combo on some neb type objects (M42 is not strong in O111 though).

Your data is nice and sharp and highly resolved but its a bit hidden by the Ha. It may be worth shooting some Luminance and adding it to the image. I know its "just" M42 but a nice M42 is still one of the most spectacular objects.

Greg.

[TheDecepticon]

Originally Posted by wysiwyg

Great job!

I love that Jelly Fish look of it, great stuff!

Yes, I suppose your right, it does have a bit of that look. Thanks!

Originally Posted by gregbradley

You got a lot of detail there Gray and overall a nice image. I think though Ha Ha RGB is not the best choice for this object as it looks dull and the colours are too biased to the red. Some luminance would lift it and show off the fabulous details you got there. Ha as luminance is a hard beast to tame and I have concluded its not usually a good move. Ha + O111 is nice, Ha LRGB is good but Ha as luminance seems to wash out the RGB too hard or create salmon colours too easily. Ha and O111 with RGB stars is a really nice combo on some neb type objects (M42 is not strong in O111 though).

Your data is nice and sharp and highly resolved but its a bit hidden by the Ha. It may be worth shooting some Luminance and adding it to the image. I know its "just" M42 but a nice M42 is still one of the most spectacular objects.

Greg.

Thank you Greg, all taken on board and will give it a go next time out.

I tried Ha and OIII and combined to form a synthetic green, but I ended up with a red Running Man!! Did you mean a blend of Ha & OIII as a luminance channel?

So, if I capture some luminance, do I need to reprocess or can I simply lay the two frames over each other and select blending mode of colour or luminosity, depending on which way I layer the image?

[gregbradley]

Thank you Greg, all taken on board and will give it a go next time out.

I tried Ha and OIII and combined to form a synthetic green, but I ended up with a red Running Man!! Did you mean a blend of Ha & OIII as a luminance channel?

So, if I capture some luminance, do I need to reprocess or can I simply lay the two frames over each other and select blending mode of colour or luminosity, depending on which way I layer the image?[/QUOTE]



Ha and O111 often are used in a bicolour formula which is Ha red O111 blue and (Ha + O111)/2 for green. LRGB or RGB stars then layered in in lighten mode to replace the colourless bicolour stars.

M42 is not the prettiest in O111.

You could add in luminance as a luminosity layer after doing work on it first. Or you may need to do an LRGB first and then add in the Ha. depends how the Ha was layered in before. Do you save a file in PSD format so it retains the various layers so you can change it easily later on? If not its a good practice and makes a repro easier to do.

Greg.

[TheDecepticon]

Greg, I always save a layered PSD file, so I will have a go at the Ha OIII option and try blending in some RGB. I guess "(Ha + OIII)/2 for green" means a 50/50 blend of Ha & OIII in the green channel.